Be honest… what do you really do if working from home?

[Wffhh]

Just that really.

I often have a bath at lunchtime. Go to shops. Clean. Last Friday watched a Christmas film in the background in bed while doing some online training. Made a pie.

Sometimes I have to work very late. Sometimes on a weekend. So I think it balances out. Anyone else be honest? Do you ever have almost a day off doing life admin?

So (some) people do actually care about productivity and I guess having a bath during worktime, going to the cinema and doing the shopping isn't very productive from the employer's perspective?

Oh yes, I understand it as a measure for individual businesses.

I just find that mumsnet tends to this view that the economy is going downhill just because people want proper lunch breaks, and carry on as if it were a duty to our country to work like Americans.

As if it would make up for systemic issues like multinationals avoiding tax and money sunk in housing costs.

Actually it's s measure used by governments and comparisons are quite interesting. For example, looking at the latest figures, there are 10 European countries whose productivity is better than the UK but where generally people work fewer hours, including France and Belgium who are renowned for long lunch breaks. The more interesting question would be why are they more productive? If the starting point is that (some) people in the UK, when WFH, don't actually work that hard (baths, cinema shopping etc) then it's not really surprising. But there are other factors too. Another example (my own experience) is a reply from HMRC in writing took 11 months. In France one can email the tax office and a reply comes back in 48 hours!